Art is Healing Journey for Local Abstract Painter
July 25, 2024
Vincent van Gogh believed in the therapeutic power of art. He once wrote: “Art consoles those broken by life.” Red Deer-area artist Mélanie Kilsby perfectly understands this sentiment.
Photo description: Mélanie Kilsby with a pair of her works in City Hall Park. Photo credit: Bill Kilsby
After the pandemic hit in 2020, she lost her administrative job in Abbotsford B.C. She became depressed and her marriage became strained.
“I didn’t believe in myself a lot,” she recalled, so Kilsby did what she’d done since she was a child. She brought out her oil paints and began applying streaks of colour to canvas.
“I wanted to express my heart without any rules. I find abstract art is more freeing, without any restrictions,” she said.
“Abstract is my strength. I have a special awareness of colour.”
Kilsby painted the Fraser Valley mountains around Chilliwack, the community she grew up in after her parents split and her mom moved her west from Quebec. She depicted the familiar landscape with loose brushstrokes and in shades of blue.
She also created eruptions of geometric shapes in another painting, called Mental Mess — which reflected her confused state of mind at the time.
This was the start of a healing journey that eventually led Kilsby, her children and her (now reconciled) spouse to central Alberta.
She moved here a couple of years ago to take a job with Red Deer County and to rejoin most of her extended family, which had gradually migrated east from B.C.
Kilsby admitted she wasn’t sure the local arts scene would be easy to break into. But her introduction to her new artistic community went far better than expected.
“I didn’t think my abstract art would resonate here so much, but it seems to be resonating” — perhaps because it’s a little unexpected, said Kilsby.
I’ve already been invited to exhibit my paintings at Copper Lane” hair salon. Her show can be seen from July 4 to 31.
The mother of five kids, now between the ages of 12 and 18, never let her domestic or work duties stand in the way of her creativity. She said she would invite her children to make art with her.
As well as painting, she also writes young adult fiction and has had poetry and articles published.
The 41-year-old once considered making a career in art but her mother, who’s of Scottish heritage, thought it impractical. Kilsby instead took library sciences at university.
She’s since discovered that her father’s Métis relations include many talented people, including her woodcarver grandfather and two very creative aunts. “They are very artistic. They are always drawing…”
Kilsby now plans to travel to Quebec next summer to explore the French Canadian and Indigenous sides of her family. She feels this journey of personal discovery will be all the more important as her husband is part First Nations, as are their children. She believes what she discovers will impact her art.
In the meantime, Kilsby said she plans to look for more exhibition opportunities in central Alberta as she further connects with other artists and the local arts scene through the Red Deer Arts Council.